Antivax conspiracy thinking has become a serious public health problem. Vaccine preventable diseases, along with the illness, injury and death that they cause, are making a comeback.

Antivaxxers like to portray themselves as possessors of secret knowledge about vaccines. In truth, they don’t have secret knowledge; they have deficient knowledge. In addition, conspiracy theories are less popular among those with higher levels of education. Yet efforts to fight antivax sentiment with accurate information have been notoriously ineffective. That’s because antivax, like most conspiracy theories, isn’t about the subject of the conspiracy; it’s about the psychology of conspiracy believers.

The typical antivaxxer is someone with limited higher education, low sense of control and low social standing.

Antivaccine conspiracies meet certain specific needs of believers. Inaccurate information can be swept away by accurate information, but unmet psychological needs are, not surprisingly, impervious to accurate information. Hence those charged with keeping the public healthy have an urgent obligation to understand the psychological needs that drive antivax conspiracies.

A new paper in the journal Applied Cognitive Psychology by Jan-Willem van Prooijen attempts to describe those needs. The title is Why Education Predicts Decreased Belief in Conspiracy Theories. It is about conspiracy theories in general, not antivax conspiracies in particular, but antivax conspiracies are in many ways paradigmatic.

Van Prooijen writes:

One demographic predictor of belief in conspiracy theories is education level. Various studies revealed that high education levels predict a decreased likelihood that people believe in conspiracy theories. What is unclear, however, is why this relationship emerges. Education is associated with a range of cognitive, emotional, and social outcomes, and hence, there may be multiple underlying processes that explain this relationship. Establishing these underlying processes provides novel insights that may form the basis for future interventions designed to systematically decrease conspiracy beliefs among the population.

He identifies three underlying processes that lead to belief in conspiracy theories: “belief in simple solutions for complex problems, feelings of powerlessness, and subjective social class.”

1. Cognitive complexity:

Education is associated with cognitive complexity, defined here as people’s ability to detect nuances and subtle differences across judgment domains, along with a tendency to consciously reflect on these nuances. People with high cognitive complexity are better equipped to attain high education levels; moreover, education nurtures and develops such complexity.

As H. L. Mencken explained:

For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong.

Van Prooijen notes:

The seemingly articulate nature of some conspiracy theories notwithstanding, these findings are consistent with the assertion that conspiracy beliefs are grounded in a general tendency to embrace relatively simplistic ideas… [C]onspiracy beliefs are strongly associated with a belief in simple solutions for complex societal problems.

Though antivaxxers are not children, their thinking is very childlike: A happened, then B happened; therefore A must have caused B.

2. Control:

People are particularly receptive to conspiracy theories when they lack control, and hence feel powerless. Lacking a sense of control leads to mental sense-making in the form of illusory pattern perception, that is, connecting dots that is not necessarily connected in reality. These sense-making activities are central in belief in conspiracy theories, which are designed to increase understanding of a distressing situation… [P]eople are most likely to believe in conspiracy theories in response to distressing societal events that they cannot control …

In other words, belief in conspiracy theories gives a sense of control to people who otherwise view themselves as powerless. That sense of powerlessness is exacerbated by lack of education:

Throughout an educational trajectory, people learn how to independently solve problems, and they acquire the social skills that are necessary to influence their social environment. It has been noted that, as a consequence, education makes people feel more strongly in control of their life and their social world, thus decreasing feelings of powerlessness …

3. Social standing:

Education influences people’s social standing relative to others, both in objective as well as subjective terms. Education is intimately related with people’s objective social standing in terms of socio-economic status (SES): People with high education are more likely to occupy the relatively privileged positions in society in terms of desirable jobs and high income…

…[F]eelings of societal marginalization are relevant for people’s susceptibility to conspiracy theories. Research indicates that communitarian but marginalized groups within society tend to make sense of the realistic problems that their group faces through assumptions of conspiracy formation (Crocker et al., 1999). In a similar vein, subjective low social class may lead people to blame the psychological or realistic problems that they face (e.g., alienation from the societal elite, unemployment, and relative deprivation) to the existence of malevolent conspiracies.

With these factors we can define the typical antivax conspiracist as someone with limited higher education, low sense of control and low social standing. Those factors cannot be addressed by merely offering accurate information. How can we address them?

… [B]y teaching children analytic thinking skills along with the insight that societal problems often have no simple solutions, by stimulating a sense of control, and by promoting a sense that one is a valued member of society, education is likely to install the mental tools that are needed to approach far-fetched conspiracy theories with a healthy dose of skepticism.

But what about adults? That’s much more difficult because antivax functions for antivaxxers to enhance their sense of control and social standing. That’s why they are constantly parachuting into science websites and Facebook pages and — without any sense of irony — announce that they are going to educate the other readers who are generally far more educated than they.

Since the primary function of antivax for antivaxxers is to bolster their ego, it seems to me that the most effective strategy would be directed against their egos.

It’s been done before, most notably in the cases tobacco smoking and of drinking and driving. Smoking was once seen as sophisticated; now it is viewed as dirty and unhealthy. Smoking used to enhance the egos of those who smoked; it no longer does. Drinking and driving used to be viewed as inevitable and worth boasting about. Spurred in large part by campaigns mounted by Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) and similar organizations, drunk driving went from being viewed as benign to utterly socially unacceptable. Driving while drunk used to have a positive or no impact on ego. Now it is a source of guilt and social opprobrium.

We should embark on a similar “makeover” for anti vaccine advocacy. When refusing to vaccinate is widely viewed as selfish, irresponsible, and the hallmark of being UNeducated, anti-vax advocacy will lose its appeal.

I know I’ve read here on this site that, looking at the clusters of anti-vax areas in, say, California, the schools with the least number of vaccinated students are in upper middle class areas, which imply the parents have a higher education level, higher income, and higher socioeconomic status.

Dr. Amy’s pointed out before that a lot of these people have been so insulated from the worries of anyone below their socio-economic class, they’ve gotten an idealized version of things like alternative medicine, natural childbirth, and not vaccinating.

This article, however, basically says it’s POORER people with LESS education that don’t vaccinate their kids. I can see a case for both, and, well, from the people I’ve seen that were anti-vax, they can fit in either group. Which is it?

The thing about control, though, works with either case. How many people jump on the anti-vax bandwagon when they have an autistic kid? They don’t have control over what happened to the child and they want to “fix” their child, so they start getting control in other ways, like feeling like they possess “special knowledge” about how things REALLY work, and everyone else is just “sheeple.”

Azuran

Well, as explained, this study applies to conspiracy theories in general and not specifically to anti-vaxxers.
Anti-vaxxers and the whole ‘toxin’ and ‘natural’ crowd does seem to be more a things with women of higher social status than your average conspiracy theory.
However, we have to keep in mind the large diversity of higher education. While those anti-vaxxers are usually generally at least middle class or higher, and generally have at least slightly over-average education, their education generally isn’t in biology or health care related fields.
Sure, there are a few notable exception, but the overwhelming majority of all health care providers or those who work in anything remotely related to biology are pro-vaccine.
While anti-vaxxers generally have higher education than the average, when it comes to real education about health/biology/vaccine, they are uneducated.

safeandnatural

This is why we don’t trust the medical profession. We were once told that smoking was safe and that doctors chose Camel or some other cancerous manufacturer so therefore we should too. Why should we trust doctors who once recommended carcinogenic substances?

Doctors also used to treat various ailments with mercury and arsenic. So really, anyone who chooses to be selective about what recommendations they take from their doctors are actually doing their ‘due diligence’.

If I choose not to take anti-inflammatories because they hurt my stomach or give me heart palpitations, does that make me “anti anti-inflammatories”?! Puleeeze! Spare me the lecture!

Heidi

Why should you believe doctors now when they tell you cigarettes cause cancer? I hope you’re doing your due diligence and smoking.

Amy Tuteur, MD

That’s the best “argument” you can come up with? You think it makes sense to distrust doctors because they’ve occasionally been wrong in the past and instead trust anti-vax advocates who have NEVER been right about anything? Great reasoning skills … NOT!

safeandnatural

Why is the medical profession telling pregnant women to abstain from coffee, alcohol, fish etc yet RECOMMENDING VACCINES which have NOT been tested on pregnant women and are certainly NOT proven safe?! Why are pregnant women given SO much advice about diet, supplements, stay healthy, etc yet PUSHED and BROWBEATEN into taking vaccines with toxic ingredients, viruses/bacteria, etc and which STIMULATE THE IMMUNE SYSTEM which could harm the foetus?! They are being emotionally blackmailed into accepting vaccines because if they don’t THEY ARE CHILD ABUSERS?! The world is mad, insane…..

Heidi_storage

Argh. Read the hundreds of comments on other threads about vaccines. And now let’s shorten the process, shall we?

You: Neurotoxins! Vaccines didn’t eliminate diseases! There are no RCTs on vaccines! (Sources: NaturalNews, Mercola, whale.to, occasional small, badly-designed studies that don’t say what you think they do.) You then call us sheeple, shills, or some tired cliche, while telling us you’ve done your research and are educated about the subject. VAERS and courts may be brought up.

Us: The dose makes the poison; vaccines absolutely do eliminate and vastly decrease the incidence of many diseases; vaccines in pregnant women and babies have been extensively studied; the RCT you want would be unethical; vaccines are safe and effective. (Sources: The CDC, NIH, numerous large, well-designed clinical studies.) We make fun of you for trotting out the same old foolishness over and over again.

Eventually, the thread dies down, maybe after you’ve flounced out a couple of times.

Why don’t you just go away now and save everyone’s time?

safeandnatural

I note that you cannot answer the question. Where are your peer reviewed, gold standard, double-blind, placebo controlled studies proving that vaccines are safe for pregnant women?

Claire Secrist

You note nothing, you’re just imitating what you think an intellectual argument sounds like. It’s not ethical to do studies on pregnant women. I’m sure your reply to this will prove that you understand bad ethics very well, so in theory, you’d be familiar with the concept.

safeandnatural

Precisely. It is not ethical. Therefore the studies have not been done, ergo it is not proven safe for pregnant women.

Claire Secrist

Yeah you’re an idiot. That’s the kindest possible explanation of such a myopic reply.

safeandnatural

You see, you cannot even discuss this issue intelligently. You cannot answer my comment so therefore you insult me.

Empress of the Iguana People

They don’t test *anything* in pregnant women. Because they aren’t evil bastards. However, when it’s been tested in everybody else to virtually no ill effects and it’s a vaccine where the virus has been minced up, then its given to pregnant women. As it is, they only give the TDaP and flu vaccines to pregnant women around here. They’ll save the MMR until after the baby is born, just to be extra safe.

safeandnatural

Perhaps you would like to refer to Nick’s reply to me above, where he quotes about 4 or 5 studies which were conducted on pregnant women? I agree with you that it is evil to do these studies on pregnant women. I cannot fathom the depth of depravity it requires to do such a thing.

They do retrospective studies on pregnant women in which they study what the women already did. Does that make you feel better? Actually I don’t care if it does, but there it is.

Nick Sanders

Interesting Catch 22 you’re trying to set up there “We can’t know it’s safe because we haven’t done studies, and we can’t study it because we don’t know if it’s safe”. Too bad for you, you’re wrong about both.

Let me know when you discuss something intelligently. You parachuted in here knowing what to expect, then blame us when things happen just the way you expected.

Empress of the Iguana People

Pertussis is more dangerous. You don’t need a double blind test to tell that, just looking up mortality records from a century ago. Oh right, sanitation or something. Except sanitation still sucks in the slums of Delhi yet thanks to vaccines they have far fewer VPDs than they otherwise would get.

safeandnatural

That’s not a very scientific statement. Pertussis is more dangerous than what? Giving vaccines to pregnant women when it’s not been tested on pregnant women? So we don’t need to do studies on pregnant women to determine it’s safe because you say it’s obvious and that we “don’t need a double-blind test to tell that”? And you are saying ‘anti-vaxxers’ are ignorant?!

Just look up the cases of AFP after Bill Gates has trampled through India with his OPV and then tell me vaccines have ‘far fewer VPDs’.

Sigh. Pertussis is more dangerous than the vaccine. Obviously. Have you no understanding of context?

safeandnatural

Please see my reply to Nick above – if a vaccine produces just under 4% serious adverse effects then this is a very high risk. It translates to 400 women for every 10,000 women. That’s a very high risk I believe.

Thank you Nick. I had a look at all of the studies and here are my comments:

1. The numbers – apart from one study – were incredibly small.
2. The participants were all super healthy and chosen for their likelihood of no pregnancy complications. Yet when the vaccine is introduced to the population, it is given to ALL women, regardless of health status. Therefore, the vaccine has not been investigated in the unhealthy.
3. In the one study, one of the ‘placebos’ is an Aluminium adjuvanted injection. Hardly a placebo.
4. All stillborns were swiftly disregarded as being due to the vaccine. This is always the case with these industry-funded or Gates funded studies.
5. The one study showed a <4% serious adverse effects, meaning that the serious adverse effects were just under 4%. So that is 4 out of every 100 pregnant women, 40 out of every 1000, 400 out of every 10,000 women – and these were healthy women. I couldn't access the paper so I don't know what the 'serious adverse effect' was. The fact that they noted these is significant.

So let's assess the risk of Tetanus, Pertussis and Diphtheria during pregnancy and see if the risk of the vaccine is worth it?

I still maintain that to conduct such studies on pregnant women is unethical.

I note that all of these studies are industry-funded. According to Ben Goldacre's research this is likely to only yield positive results. Industry never publishes studies that would show their product in a negative light.

Dr Kitty

They don’t exist, however Cohort studies could easily be done, as per my post above.

Would you like to suggest the design of a study?
Including proposed size of populations in each cohort and what outcomes exactly you might be looking for ?

You propose that vaccination in pregnancy is harmful- there are easily studied populations available- talk to me about what study you would like to see done.

Then you can have a think about the design of your follow-up study to prove causation if any statistically different outcomes are identified.

A study looking at every pregnancy in the UK in 2007 (before routine pertussis vaccination was introduced) and 2015 (after it was), comparing rates of stillbirth, for example, might be feasible to undertake, but would be unlikely to give you data which would prove your hypothesis that pertussis vaccination actually causes stillbirth.

In the absence of such evidence, and the presence of evidence of reduced morbidity and mortality from Pertussis since introduction of the vaccine, it is regarded as “safe”, on the balance of known risks and benefits.

Just because you can’t accept that doesn’t mean that the medical community has to agree with you.

Dr Kitty

Are you aware of cohort studies?

In 2008/9 when I was pregnant with my daughter pregnant women in the UK were not advised to get ‘Flu vaccines or DTPaP boosters.
Then came H1N1 ‘flu causing the deaths of several pregnant women and neonates and a spike in incidence of pertussis cases resulting in multiple neonatal deaths.
Now the UK recommends vaccination for both flu and pertussis in pregnancy. My practice has a greater than 95% uptake for both in our pregnant population (we have about 150 births a year).

I got both vaccines during my pregnancy with my son in 2014/15.

Comparing babies born in the U.K. in 2009 with comparable babies born in 2015 (like my two) what SPECIFIC evidence of damage would one expect to find?

How big would both cohorts need to be to detect statistically significant differences for the specific conditions you propose to look for?

Suppose you found a statistically significant difference, how would you propose to prove causation?

Peter Harris

You were correct in what you stated about doctors and cigarettes, despite the nonsense from others here.

Nick Sanders

We were once told that smoking was safe and that doctors chose Camel or some other cancerous manufacturer so therefore we should too. Why should we trust doctors who once recommended carcinogenic substances?

Ugh, not the old smoking bullshit again. Doctors never said that shit, advertisements did. If you can’t tell the difference between the two, that’s not the fault of doctors.

Doctors also used to treat various ailments with mercury and arsenic.

And hatters used to make felt using mercury, children used to work in coal mines and factories with unshielded machinery, and the streets were filled with horse crap. The past was a horrible place, so what?

If I choose not to take anti-inflammatories because they hurt my stomach or give me heart palpitations, does that make me “anti anti-inflammatories”?!

Not taking anti-inflammatories doesn’t make you a health risk to the people around you.

I noticed you didn’t address Nick’s points. In particular, his point that you apparently can’t distinguish between doctors and commercials.

Considering that your whole premise for coming here was that doctors are not trustworthy because they recommended smoking, having that claim refuted pulls out the basis for everything you have, wouldn’t you say?

Oh, I know, you won’t admit it. You’ll just move on to your next baseless assertion, and then the next and then the next, in a classic Gish gallop.

Charybdis

Really? What about incubation times of a lot of illnesses? That’s the time AFTER you get infected with the disease and BEFORE you start to show symptoms that would cause you to think “I might be getting ill”. You are contagious during that period of time and are going on your merry way, breathing, sneezing, coughing, eating, drinking, touching, etc. all sorts of things. You are being an active disease vector, spreading your germs far and wide. Other people occupy the same space as you do, and you DO NOT KNOW their circumstances. One might have a newborn baby at home who cannot be vaccinated yet. One might be a recipient of an organ transplant and on immune-suppressing drugs to combat rejection. Another might have their spouse undergoing cancer treatment (radiation, chemo, etc) and are immunosuppressed because of the treatment. One might have a genuine, documented allergy to a component of the vaccination, so they CAN’T be vaccinated. Or the person does not seroconvert, either via vaccination or infection (some people get chicken pox more than once, a regular poster here has a child who, despite getting the TDaP vaccine, has had whooping cough several times) and is vulnerable to the disease through no fault of their own.
So, just how do you justify your myopic, selfish behavior regarding vaccinations and VPD’s?

Claire Secrist

Because anti vaxxers think that people only die of vaccine preventable diseases if they’re inferior genetic specimens, who don’t deserve to live if they can’t live through measles or whooping cough. They don’t care about people who just had bone marrow transplants or children with cancer.

Cat

Yup – I lost track of the number of the visitors in my daughter’s first three months who sent me panic-stricken texts 24 hours later saying “I’m so sorry, it turns out that I’m ill – I really hope I haven’t given your baby anything”. Chillingly, my mother had pertussis a few months before my daughter’s birth. Initially she thought she’d just been working too hard, then that it was a cold. She was in contact with a hell of a lot of people, including kids with weakened immune systems, before she got the diagnosis after her third doctors appointment.

Heidi_storage

Not to mention that doctors aren’t all that crazy about NSAIDs (I assume that’s what she means) because of the gastrointestinal/cardiac issues, whereas they are very enthusiastic about vaccines because they’re safe and effective.

Roadstergal

M’boy has osteoarthritis, and his docs have been very careful to work with him to maximize his mobility and minimize intervention – including being clear about the risks of NSAIDs and advising him to take it easy on them.

Heidi_storage

Precisely–doctors aren’t running around screaming “NSAIDs for you! And you! And you!” a la Oprah.

Again, that’s it???
The sum total of your rebuttal, a few monosyllabic words.

Nick Sanders

I suppose if I wished, I could be more eloquent and loquacious, but I prefer to rest on the quality of my information rather than the verbosity of my counterargument.

Peter Harris

hahaha.
Your impression of a dilettante is not even close.

All you got, is Link’s to infantile memes and YouTube videos.

Nick Sanders

No, I had a link to a peer reviewed journal. Or are you projecting again?

Peter Harris

One link is hardly conclusive.
What else have you got?

And are you denying the existence of Dr. Clarence Cook Little?

Peter Harris

From your so-called peer reviewed journal.

“For example, social commentator Bernard Devoto described the exhibit hall of the 1947 American Medical Association (AMA) convention in Atlantic City, where doctors “lined up by the hundred” to receive free cigarettes.25 At the 1942 AMA annual convention, Philip Morris provided a lounge in which doctors could relax and socialize. The lounge, an advertisement explained, was “designed for your comfort. Drop in. Rest . . . read . . . smoke . . . or just chat.
Advertisement: “Philip Morris invites you to the . . . Doctor’s Lounge.”26
Besides welcoming physicians to the convention, Reynolds touted their scientific research into cigarettes. In an advertisement that appeared in medical journals across the country in the weeks before the 1942 AMA meeting.”

You don’t speak for me. Watch your ignorant mouth. I’m ill and tired from getting ready to move house and a troll who doesn’t care who she hurts with her unvaccinated kids and low self-esteem needing a boost with “special knowledge” and going against the norms to make herself feel like she is better than others is just the type of fool that needs a lecture. Or a therapist. A real one.

safeandnatural

All medical treatment, including vaccines, is subject to informed consent and everyone has the right to choose their own treatment. Parents have the right to choose what is best for themselves and their family. Vaccines are not risk free. It doesn’t matter how rare adverse events are, vaccines are not safe for everyone.

Therefore, those who choose to get vaccinated should be allowed to do so and likewise those who choose not to get vaccinated should also be allowed to do so. Those who vaccinate should feel safe with their decision and should not be worried about the unvaccinated.

I fail to see why those who vaccinate should be concerned about the unvaccinated, since they believe so strongly in the safety and efficacy of their vaccines.

The mantra that vaccines only work if everybody gets them simply defies logic. Most of a given population is either unvaccinated or the ‘immunity’ conferred by the vaccine has waned. Therefore most adults are completely unvaccinated and therefore cannot contribute to the myth of ‘vaccine herd immunity’.

Anyone who says we should all get vaccinated to ‘protect those who cannot get vaccinated’ are living in cloud cuckoo land. I for one will not get vaccinated and risk my health (or the health of my children) for someone who is immuno-compromised and who is susceptible to all manner of disease and not just so-called ‘vaccine preventable diseases’.

Most people who stop vaccinating were once vaccinators but who experienced serious adverse effects themselves or their children experienced serious adverse effects. It has absolutely nothing to do with the level of education or level of wealth.

Stop spreading lies and disinformation. You are a disgrace to your profession.

Amy Tuteur, MD

Clearly you don’t know much about vaccines if you think the only people who are harmed by the ignorant, unethical decision to withhold vaccines from your children are your children.

safeandnatural

I note that you didn’t answer my reference to the mythical ‘vaccine herd immunity’….. is it because you haven’t got an answer?

Nick Sanders

Rinderpest.

safeandnatural

Your comment makes no sense – my children are certainly NOT harmed by my decision to not vaccinate. Nor are any other children harmed by my decision.

I found this recently which really sums up the stupidity of ‘vaccine herd immunity’ nicely:

“A woman accused my unvaxxed children of spreading measles and polio and killing other kids even though they don’t have any of these diseases. My solution?

I called her husband and told him he needs to be tested for
gonorrhoea because his wife may have given it to him. He calls her, flips out, accuses her of cheating. She repeatedly says “I didn’t give you gonorrhoea. I don’t have gonorrhoea! How could I possibly give you gonorrhoea if I don’t even have it?”

Checkmate.”

Amy Tuteur, MD

You are a perfect illustration of the Dunning Kruger effect: those who are most ignorant actually think they are “educated.”

safeandnatural

Only those who have lost the argument quote the puerile Dunning Kruger effect.

I note once again that you cannot answer me.

Amy Tuteur, MD

Why would I bother to argue with you? You are so arrogant that you actually think you know what you are talking about. You won’t listen and you don’t have the educational background to understand even if you did listen. Anti-vaxxers should realize that while their friends in the natural parenting community may be impressed with them, doctors, scientists and public health officials think they are morons.

safeandnatural

Ah, that’s right, only people who are qualified as doctors can possibly understand a history lesson or anything to do with medication and medical treatment. Patients are stupid and must just do as the doctor orders, is that right? And you call ME arrogant?! Geez, but that’s rich!

So what you are saying is that I have zero right to question you or your opinions and diagnoses? Yes? I must just take my pills as directed like a good little patient?

Amy Tuteur, MD

No, I’m not saying anything about questioning me. I’m telling you that you don’t have enough basic knowledge about immunology, science or statistics to even pretend to understand vaccine research. You’ve given me no indications — no educational background, no professional qualifications, no patient care experience, no public health training, no evidence that you’ve read the scientific literature on the topic — to conclude anything other than the fact that you are both ignorant and arrogant.

I notice you have not been able to come up with a single time in the past 200 years when anti-vaxxers were every right about anything. That’s not surprising. They have the same track record for accuracy as the people who claim they’ve seen UFOs.

safeandnatural

Please see my reply above re the past 200 years.

So you’ve simply assumed that I’m ignorant?

I don’t need a medical degree to have common sense or to have an analytical brain. I’m not arrogant at all. I’m simply questioning you and YOU are getting hot under the collar!

It’s not difficult to read various scientific literature, product inserts, vaccine history, statistics, listen to parents, read legal cases, the list goes on. It’s not difficult to understand that vaccines have caused diseases to shift from childhood to adulthood (causing worse problems in older patients); it’s not difficult to understand that deaths from measles were down 98% from peak when the vaccine (which was not safe) was introduced; it’s not difficult to understand that the diagnostic criteria for polio was changed after the vaccine was introduced, thereby automatically ‘reducing’ the number of polio cases; it’s not difficult to understand that the medical profession refuses to acknowledge ANY vaccine injury, even when the injury occurs within a few hours of the administration of a vaccine.

You still haven’t explained how vaccine herd immunity works or proven that it works. I’ll accept that you cannot because it is a complete myth. That’s because outbreaks occur in fully vaccinated communities and communities where the coverage is above 95%. This is because vaccines fail. It’s because people react differently to vaccines and some don’t produce an immune reaction. That’s because anti-bodies are not the correct measurement of immunity. It’s also because live vaccines shed the vaccine strain virus and can actually CAUSE an ‘outbreak’.

Those who support the use of vaccines often cite ‘correlation is not causation’. It works both ways. Just because a vaccine was introduced at the time a disease was naturally declining doesn’t mean that the vaccine can claim responsibility for the decline. Several other diseases ALSO declined at the same rate (or very close) and they did so WITHOUT a vaccine.

Amy Tuteur, MD

No, you’ve demonstrated that you’re ignorant by babbling nonsense and pretending it is “research.”

Imagining you’re qualified to discuss vaccine research because you’ve read product inserts is the intellectual equivalent of imagining that you are qualified to be an architect because you’ve read House Beautiful.

safeandnatural

Ah, but after reading House Beautiful I can decide on which house I would like.

And I note yet again you don’t answer my points. You really are becoming very predictable.

safeandnatural

And in fact, what you are confirming is that you as the doctor must tell the patient what to do and the patient must comply without questioning anything.

I’m sure you must really detest the loss of control when patients decide, you know what, I’m not going to take your pharma-funded advice – I’m going to do the complete opposite because I don’t trust what you say anymore.

safeandnatural

BTW, I never pretended anything was ‘research’. I said I had read various areas on vaccines. Don’t put words in my messages….

It’s the same as me reading up on a drug e.g. anti-inflammatories or ant-acids or any other drug. I can read and I can understand. My goodness, for a doctor you are really, truly insulting!

Amy Tuteur, MD

Anti-vax has been around for more than 200 years. Here’s an easy request for you. Find a time in the past 200 years where anti-vaxxers were ever right about anything.

safeandnatural

If you research the Leicester rebellion against mandatory small pox vaccination you will soon see that those who refused to be vaccinated (because people were dying from the vaccine) and who used the containment method to reduce deaths from smallpox were actually correct.

safeandnatural

And of course, I wonder why people were against vaccinations for all that length of time? Could it POSSIBLY be because of the DANGERS of vaccines and that people realised they didn’t work?! If vaccines were SO good and safe and effective why do people STILL keep refusing them? Could it POSSIBLY be because children are being HURT and KILLED by vaccines and then the parents simply say ‘no more!!’?

Amy Tuteur, MD

Why do some people keep refusing them? That’s easy: because they are ignorant clowns such as yourself. Pediatricians vaccinate their children, immunologists vaccinate their children, pharma executives vaccinate their children. Are we suppose to believe you know more than they do?

safeandnatural

But this is my point! You automatically assume that because a patient refuses a treatment that you recommend that they are ignorant clowns! You are so arrogant!

Just because pediatricians, immunologists and pharma executives vaccinate their children doesn’t mean to say they are correct in doing so.

That’s absolutely not scientific at all. It simply means they are following the herd.

If I look at the available information on a particular drug and then decide that it is not for me because the risk for adverse effects is too high, am I an ‘ignorant clown’?

Amy Tuteur, MD

No, I don’t assume patients who refuse treatments are ignorant clowns. There are many valid reasons for refusing medical treatments. There are no valid reasons for refusing vaccines absent a doctor’s judgement that a specific vaccine is harmful to a specific child.

Why are you here? Why are you arguing with me. You are not going to convince me of anything because you don’t know anything.

How could you ever possibly know that a vaccine could be harmful to a child?

You’ve just contradicted yourself. It’s OK to refuse a medical treatment but not a vaccine? What is a vaccine if not a medical treatment? Because vaccines are given to healthy individuals it’s far more important for that vaccine to be 100% safe. Which they are not. So a patient should have the right to refuse them.

This is my whole point and my argument. I’m trying to establish that a patient has the absolute right to refuse vaccination, irrespective of whether you think he/she is educated or not. People have that right.

Yet again you insult me without even knowing my background. You insult me by saying I believe in ‘quackery’.

I believe in the right to self-determination and to accept or reject medical advice or treatment. You don’t have the right to force treatment upon anyone – that is coercion, not medicine.

Empress of the Iguana People

You know the same way you know if peanuts or tomatos are harmful for a particular child. They get an allergic reaction when they try it. Far more people are allergic to foods than to vaccines. Autism, auto-immune diseases, etc. are not caused by vaccines.
My children, my spouse, and I are up to date. My kids are hitting all their mile stones at the times. My husband is blind from congenital rubella (german measles) and I’m deaf from scarlet fever. Our personal experiences are as valid as yours. (and yes, i know scarlet fever is not a vpd, but it is a once common childhood illness).
But you probably think I’m a paid shill and that Bofa, Roadster, Bea, and I are all the same person.

safeandnatural

Vaccines cause allergies. They are listed as adverse effects on the product inserts. Just search on ‘vaccines cause allergies’ and you will even find CDC information on this. Peanut oil was an unlisted ingredient in vaccines and only since then did peanut allergies become dangerously widespread.

I am sorry that you are deaf from scarlet fever. There was no vaccine for scarlet fever – at least, not one that was safe or used widely.

The tragedy is that people will die from disease and people will get complications from disease. It is a fact of life. It’s sad, it’s horrible but we cannot prevent it all.

You know why your kids don’t have those diseases? There are lots of vaccinated people around them. But your kids are at risk of contracting polio, measles, mumps, rubella, diphtheria, pertussis, and/or chicken pox if they were ever exposed to it. They could get exposed to it from international travel, contact with someone who had been overseas, or other unvaccinated people or people who failed to seroconvert who had been exposed to it. Then, your kids threaten everyone around them because they are continuing the spread of those diseases. They could get a baby who is too young for vaccines sick. They could get an old person sick. Vaccines are not 100% effective, so they could get a vaccinated person sick.

In other words, yes, you not vaccinating your kids hurts them (they are vulnerable to some rather nasty diseases) and everyone around them (if your kids get exposed, they are a threat to everyone around them). Your kids are only safe insofar as they are surrounded by vaccinated people- and thanks to your stupidity, the number of unvaccinated people is growing.

safeandnatural

“Vaccines are not 100% effective”. Nor are they 100% safe. So my children, who are 100% vaccine free, have been exposed to all manner of diseases (from vaccinated children as well as unvaccinated) and have all gone through measles and chicken pox without any problems whatsoever. The children who WERE vaccinated actually came down with chicken pox far WORSE than the unvaccinated. This has been shown to be true, time and time again.

And how would I know if my children could or could not ‘sero-convert’ (even though that is not proven to be immunity)? How would I know if my children could be harmed by a vaccine? The truth is, we don’t know. And I’m not willing to play Russian Roulette with my children’s lives.

Finally, outbreaks occur in populations where the children are 100% vaccinated. Fact.

So vaccinated children spread disease. Fact. They can indeed spread disease without contracting it themselves.

It is foolish to ignore these facts.

But let’s just say that you are right, let’s imagine just for one amazing moment. Look at the levels of CHRONIC DISEASE amongst children. Allergies (some of which are life-threatening), eczema, seizures, developmental delays, neurological impairments, chronic ear infections, chronic throat infections, constant sickness (colds, ‘flu), digestive disorders and dare I use the word, autism (whatever the cause is).

My children suffer from none of those issues, as do most unvaccinated children.

And what about all the diseases for which there are NO vaccines? What about the poor babies, old people, immuno-compromised etc then? There are far more diseases out there than the mild measles, mumps, rubella and chickenpox (which they are mild, in healthy children with no nutritional deficiencies).

No, sorry Feminerd, you can stick to your vaccines and take your risks with them. I will not risk my children for the safety of YOUR children.

I wonder why your mythical tale teller just didn’t say wifey had a cold? Couldn’t be that he wanted-assuming he ever existed except in the fevered brain of the teller-to raise a little hell in the marriage in question.

What a lovely kind of human to be using as an example.

Azuran

Over 99% of doctor and other medical professionals of any kind support vaccine. Does that make ALL of them a disgrace to their profession?

safeandnatural

I note that you didn’t answer my reference to the mythical ‘vaccine herd immunity’…..

Azuran

Herd immunity is not a myth. You are wrong.

safeandnatural

Please prove it?

Azuran

How about you prove that it’s not real?

Lets face it, you are a deluded idiot who is not open about changing his mind. Nothing anyone could ever show you would change your mind. The evidence for vaccine safety and efficacy, as well as the existence of herd immunity is all out there. But you’d rather believe that you know more than over 99% of doctors, toxicologists, immunologists, epidemiologists and every other kind of scientist out there.

You are just deluded and I’m not going to waste any more time with you.

safeandnatural

You are deflecting. It’s not for me to disprove it because I’m not trying to foist any drugs on you. You are trying to justify vaccination because you claim that we need ‘herd immunity’. Well, substantiate your claim. Honestly, if you can prove vaccine herd immunity exists, I will accept it.

Azuran

How’s that for herd immunity: Got polio? Or mumps? Or whopping cough? or smallpox?

The info you seek about herd immunity is everywhere. If you were honest about accepting reality, you’d have properly researched it already.

safeandnatural

That’s definitely not a scientific answer. I am not going to base my judgement on “herd immunity is everywhere”. I have thoroughly read up on this subject and I have concluded that vaccine herd immunity cannot be achieved because vaccines fail and many people do not achieve the required production of antibodies to say that the vaccine is ‘efficacious’.

Which brings me to my next point is that vaccines are only deemed ‘effective’ if they produce antibodies. The vaccine is not injected into individuals and then the individuals exposed to the virus/bacteria to confirm that they are immune (I obviously understand why this is not done though) so the vaccine is only estimated to be efficacious and not proven.

There is also continuing research on the immune system – the innate and the humoral – because scientists actually don’t know how the innate immune system works. There are studies showing that people with antibodies from vaccines will contract the disease and people without antibodies DO NOT contract the disease after exposure. So the science is definitely not settled on how our amazing immune system works.

Roadstergal

“Which brings me to my next point is that vaccines are only deemed ‘effective’ if they produce antibodies.”

Nope. Antibody titer is just one convenient shorthand. There are plenty of other ways to judge the effectiveness, as a response to a vaccine – like a response to the actual pathogen – is multi-pronged and involves many branches of both the innate and adaptive immune systems. Because they rely on each others’ activities to function properly. Your ‘gold standard’ test was actually done with smallpox, but we have better models now.

We don’t have to, you troll. You are mentally lazy. You cherry-pick internet things that only reinforce your own bias. Try disproving your beliefs if you’re so sure you’re right.

safeandnatural

Actually, yes. They are a disgrace because they never question what they are being taught. In fact, they never question what they are NOT taught. They are not taught about the true history of vaccines or about the ingredients in vaccines. They are not taught how to recognise a vaccine injury; they are not taught that vaccine injuries actually DO occur. They are not told to report vaccine injuries. They never listen to parents when a vaccine injury occurs and when the parent is pleading for help for their injured child. They dismiss parents as neurotic or paranoid and ‘uneducated’ or ‘ignorant’. They belittle parents and call them ‘child abusers’ if they don’t vaccinate.

They are not taught how food nourishes the body and the mind and they are not taught what a healthy diet is. The tragedy is that they never question why they can only offer drugs and surgery, instead of including diet and lifestyle advice as options. They never question why their only source of information is the pharma rep. They never question the pharma reps and the data they are presented with. They never search for studies that are independently undertaken (not that there are many these days).

They automatically think that anyone who questions a doctor is stupid, ignorant, uneducated, of low social standing or believing in ‘conspiracy theories’ or some other equally inane insult. They hurl insults such as “Dr Google” or equally stupid insult that says the parent is stupid because they search the internet looking for answers. Yet those who hurl such insults ALSO use the internet to find information. Double-standards.

Yet the internet is used by prestigious educational facilities all across the world to educate people via on-line courses, but the moment someone suggests that they found scientific studies on vaccines on the internet that show vaccines can harm and boom! Instant insults and nasty accusations, ranging from casting aspersions about their heritage to “they should be prosecuted and thrown into jail”.

Parents, children and patients are being thrown out of doctors offices for refusing vaccines and chemotherapy. Whatever happened to the Hippocratic oath?

Whatever happened to the rights of the patient to have dominion over their own body?

People who think for themselves these days are ridiculed and vilified.

So yes, doctors who insult patients and treat them as imbeciles are a total disgrace.

momofone

What’s with all the “they never” statements? Anytime I hear someone speaking in absolutes, I realize that they are not speaking based on evidence but on ideology. You make the assumption that they don’t question. What you are hearing here is that they do, in fact, and that the vast majority of them conclude that it is safer to vaccinate than not.

I am willing to be that you have no idea what “they” are taught. You are regurgitating what you’ve heard and it shows.

Seems someone drank the koolaid by the gallon, to the point of rainbow urine. She has the illusion of knowledge, which is the largest enemy of learning.

Azuran

Seriously, how do you know what doctors are and are not taught? Did you go to med school? Or did you just hear that online? You SERIOUSLY think that doctors are NOT told that vaccine injuries can happen?
Because I sure was taught ALL those things you pretend doctors are not taught while I was in vet school. So I’m pretty sure that human doctors learn it too.

My PCP tells me the flu shot risks when he gives mine every year, and he knows I’m an RN. It takes him 10 sec. as it’s a ritual with us now.

Chi

Exactly. Before I get my annual flu vaccination, not only do I have to sign an informed consent form which details all the risks as well as asking questions that may affect the outcome of the shot (have I been sick lately, am I currently running a fever, am I allergic to eggs or egg products etc), the nurse gives me a run down OF THAT SAME FORM to ensure that I’ve read and understood it all.

THEN I have to sit in the waiting room for 15-20mins after receiving the shot to ensure a severe allergic reaction doesn’t happen.

Once I’ve got the all clear I am then sent home with a sheet of paper detailing all possible side effects and that x, y, and z can be dealt with at home by a, b, and c and that if I have 1, 2, or 3 side effects to get my ass back to the practice or to the nearest ER pronto.

So to say that Drs and nurses aren’t taught what vaccine reactions and side effects look like is complete and utter bullshit.

The problem is that what anti-vaxxers call vaccine injuries, and what are ACTUAL vaccine injuries are two COMPLETELY separate things. But no amount of scientific data can chip through their aura of righteous knowledge and anecdata. To them, if it happened after the vaccine it MUST be the vaccine that caused it and there’s no convincing them otherwise.

STFU! A tiny infant died recently out here from a preventable illness at 3mo. because someone didn’t know they could infect the baby. Babies too young to be vaccinated, the immunocompromised, etc., can’t be blamed for being the way they are, so the rest of us get vaccinated to protect them, you selfish (insert noun here).

doula123

My youngest is due to have his MMR in the UK…I want him vaccinated, but am confused by all the varying info floating around…if anyone knows of any studies on whether the single vaccines are actually safer than the combined, I’d be grateful! (and yes I am aware the autism thing has been debunked, though you’d be amazed – or maybe you wouldn’t – at how many people still actually believe it.)

“Single vaccines are less safe than MMR because they leave children vulnerable to dangerous diseases for longer. Giving 3 separate doses at spaced out intervals would mean that, after the first injection, the child still has no immunity to the other 2 diseases.”

“With the combined MMR most children are given good protection by a single dose given at about 12-15 months and protection is virtually complete by dose 2, a pre-school booster to catch children whose first dose didn’t stimulate a full immune response.

Delaying immunisations by splitting them has a similar effect to reducing the proportion of children immunised. More children are unprotected, increasing the risk to themselves and to other children.

In the past, when measles and rubella vaccines were used separately, children continued to get measles and babies were born with congenital rubella. When MMR was introduced, measles and congenital rubella were virtually eliminated”

EmbraceYourInnerCrone

Single doses would mean 6 separate jabs as well. (Since I believe, 2 doses of MMR are recommended for ensuring full immunity.)

Christopher Hickie

I will agree I’ve seen parents refuse vaccines who meet subscribe to these conspiracy theories. However, I’ve come across a lot of parents in my 15+ years of practice who’ve been tricked into not vaccinating by the likes of anti-vaccine doctors like Bob Sears, Jay Gordon and most recently Paul Thomas–all licensed FAAP pediatricians who’ve all profited handsomely openly selling (and speaking on) their anti-vaccine materials (books and DVDs) that are very difficult for individual physicians to refute. State medical boards refuse to discipline these bozos and the AAP refuses to expel them. I’ve honestly given up trying to convince these parents to vaccinate in the exam room and feel deeply for their children. I don’t think vaccine rates will improve (they started dropping again where I live in Arizona this year) until there are more vaccine-preventable disease outbreaks with resultant morbidity and mortality, which is sad, because the state medical board and groups like the AAP could have prevented this early on.

Steph858

I might be inferring incorrectly, but I think the gist of your post was, “If only the AAP would just strike these charlatans off already, we could avert an epidemic tragedy.” I would like to see anti-vax paediatricians disciplined properly too, but I can see the spin the anti-vax crowd would put on such an event already:

A lot of parents have been gulled into not vaccinating by these quack charlatans who should not be FAAPs and should not have a medical license either. These AV pediatricians are already faux heroes/martyrs/whatever to AVers, and I don’t really care what hard-core AVers think because there is nothing that will ever change their minds. But being able to say to a vaccine-hesitant parent coming in to see me touting “Dr. Bob’s” anti-vaccine book that Sears was expelled from a group of 60,000 pediatricians because he’s a quack could go a long way towards convincing that parent to vaccinate.

Peter Harris

And a lot of parents have been bullied into vaccinating their children, by quacks like you.

Nick Sanders

You should review your definition of “quack”.

Christopher Hickie

You know that how? Hard to know much living in a basement using a 2400K modem while wearing a foil hat on your head, Peter.

Peter Harris

I see you did not refute the fact you are a bitter and twisted quack.

Mishimoo

Dude, no one has to refute insults, and their lack of acknowledgement regarding your ad hominem remark does not mean you have won. Are you going to prove that you’re not a basement dwelling, foil-hatted cretin? How?

Peter Harris

Oh I see, Dr Sickie gets his flunkies to answer for him.
Or maybe Dr Sickie is using an alternative Disqus account, either way, he has no balls.

Mishimoo

Thank you for the laugh!

Peter Harris

Sama sama Dr Sickie.

Peter Harris

Oh, and there is no basements in Aussie homes.

Mishimoo

So what you’re saying is that you actually live in a garage or shed. Also, if you can get a simple fact wrong, why should anyone believe anything else you have to say? Basements are uncommon in Australia, but they’re not non-existent.

Peter Harris

Ha ha ha…
So you are intimate with history of Australian architecture r u?
Have you been to Australia? Can you point to any basements in Australian homes?
Here’s an Australian saying, you are a wanker.

Mishimoo

Maaaaaate. (If you’re actually Aussie, instead of some tourist who feels a deep spiritual connection with Uluru, you’ll know exactly what that means.)

Yep, I’m an Aussie living in Central Java, you have a problem with that?

“Basements are so expensive because of their complexity when it comes to water ingress, ventilation, natural lighting, drainage and other civil engineering challenges, Scott says.”

Nice try, but that link you sent me doesn’t prove a thing.
There is no tradition in Australia of buildings basements, because of the soil and clay in Australia.
And wine Cellars don’t count do they.

I’m sure that you’d like to talk about the merits, or otherwise, of Australian Residential architecture, because you know nothing of medicine or biology, only the industry of treating symptoms and slowly killing patients with toxic substances, which have been approved by that august organisation, the FDA.

Mishimoo

The point was whether basements exist in Australia, not whether there was a tradition of basement building nor whether they are difficult to build, but thanks for trying to move the goal posts.

As for living in Central Java, there’s only a few reasons for Aussies to move there and very few of them are good. Coupled with your ranting about biology and the FDA I would hazard a guess that you’re either torturing the locals with your own brand of ‘medicine’ which has no scientific grounding or running retreats for the worried well (why not both?) while taking advantage of the lack of oversight.
PS. As an ‘Aussie’ surely you know it’s the Therapeutic Goods Administration which controls the use of medicines, vaccines, and medical devices in Australia?

Peter Harris

Hahaha, you are a world-class wanker.

“but thanks for trying to move the goal posts.”

Maybe you are a goldfish, and have a short term memory, but it was you, who raised the subject of basements in Australia.

No, I’m only in Central Java for the beautiful sundanese girls…haha
They love their bule, morning noon and night 😉

Of course I know about the Therapeutic Goods Administration, what’s your point?
You being an ignorant American I assume, I’ll let you in on a little secret, the Therapeutic Goods Administration rubber stamps everything the FDA rubber stamps.

Mishimoo

Oh, you still think I’m the other guy? The one who raised the point of basements in the first place? Mate, I am just genuinely taking the piss and have been the entire time, but congratulations on your paranoia and lack of reading comprehension. Cheers for calling me a ‘wanker’ though, and a world class one at that! It’s a novel and hilarious experience.

Your claims regarding the TGA are incorrect, as there are several things the FDA has approved which aren’t yet allowed here, but hey: enjoy wallowing in your ignorance.

Also, thanks for confirming one of my unvoiced suspicions about your choice of location; it’s not really something to be proud of.

Peter Harris

Only the truly gromless and feckless, such as yourself, use ad hominem and non sequitur to avoid your own scrutiny, and that is, the killing of thousands of people each day, via the medical / pharmaceutical industrial complex.

Mishimoo

Perhaps you mean ‘gormless’?

Peter Harris

Yep, it’s rather apt that you pointed it out.

Mishimoo

You’re still going? Just how bored are you?

Peter Harris

Ask yourself.

Mishimoo

No, see: here, you get to explain yourself instead of trying to deflect onto others and/or moving the goalposts. That’s how it works, mate.

Peter Harris

As I said, you’re the one who’s misdirecting, but go ahead, raise any subject you like.

Do you honestly believe that the ‘soil and clay’ are the same throughout the whole continent?

I actually spent a week in a very nice basement. In Queensland.

Peter Harris

Oh I see, another doctor Sicky flunkie.

Tigger_the_Wing Empress of the Iguana People.
6 days ago
Thank you for the laugh!

Isn’t it just a little curious, you all / the same person use the same language?
I have to run off, and collect some plant samples now, so we can pick this up at a later date.
Because it’s so fascinating to investigate the twisted mind of Dr Sickie and his flunkies / multiple disqus accounts.

Tigger_the_Wing

We all use English? Why not? This is an English language blog. Ar mhaith leat é má scríobh mé i nGaeilge? Ou français?

Who?

It’s time to stop jerking with this ‘Peter Harris’, imho.

Deluded enough to believe those beautiful young women (did he say women, perhaps I’m assuming women?) want to have sex with him because he’s an awesome dude, rather than because he’s got money and they don’t. Let’s just hope, whether male or female, they are adults not children. And that, whatever age they are, he isn’t infecting them with STIs.

If Peter is in Java sexually exploiting the locals he is bad people, Peter. Quite apart from that, poor people living in difficult conditions are those who benefit most from vaccination.

Peter Harris

I guess this is an inevitable consequence, of nothing intelligent to say, so you resort to scrapping the bottom of the non-sequitur barrel.

Peter Harris

If you going to tell ‘porkies,’ then pick a city that’s never going to build basements in their homes.

Brisbane, and the greater south east corner of Queensland is a flood zone… stupid.

This is a picture of what is known as a “Queenslander.”
They are built on stilts!

You do realise Queensland is more than just Brisbane and the south-east corner, right?

Peter Harris

Yes, and your point is, apart from tying yourself up in knots?

I was responding directly to the other comment regarding basements in Brisbane.

I’ll keep it simple for you simpletons, Brisbane floods like other parts of Queensland, but worse, because do you know why? That’s right, a big river runs through it, and it has a history of flooding.
And you know why that’s significant?
It’s because there is greater population density in Brisbane, resulting in far greater damage

Of course, you’ll continue to discuss Australian Residential architecture, and the Geographic locations for flooding in Queensland, but it’s all a ruse, to avoid scrutiny of that quack, you/Dr Sickie.

P.S.
This is my second posting, because the first posting came with a link, that was blocked.

Mishimoo

Mate, you’re deflecting again and still seem to be confused about the fact that several different people disagree with you. Additionally, your information sounds like you are vomiting up a wikipedia entry and have no real knowledge in this area. Have you even been to Queensland?
PS. Also, in relation toyour earlier comment: they’re called ‘stumps’, not ‘stilts’.

Peter Harris

I’m not sure what they call them in that cave of yours, but here…
“Residents to build higher houses on stilts to avoid Brisbane flood…”
I won’t post the link. Suffice to say it was a headline in the Courier mail.
Anything else before we move on to doctor Sickie?

Mishimoo

You didn’t answer my question, which seems to be one of your strengths. Your insults are half-baked at best, and your discernment is severely lacking. Again, why should anyone respect or even slightly consider the medical and pharmaceutical opinions of (what sounds like) a West Australian ex-miner in his 50s-60s who has taken off to Central Java to play with plants and prey on the locals?

Peter Harris

Oh, I see, more off-topic nonsense.

I guess that is expected, because you’re desperately avoiding discussing Dr Sickie the Quack.

And it’s not an insult, when it’s factual, and that is you are a simpleton.

Mishimoo

A little too close to home for you?
It’s not off-topic – you have decided to harass someone, you decided all of us are a single person, you have tried to claim that you are more knowledgeable in this field, and you haven’t proven anything beyond your willingness to joke about being a sexual predator.

Peter Harris

Oh.now I’m a “sexual predator.”

Nice try?
Not even close doctor Sickie.

Peter Harris

Oh, and you can’t be a sexual predator, if you’re the one who’s being chased and hunted.

Mishimoo

Sure mate, keep telling yourself that’s what is happening. Just how much plant matter are you sampling?

Tigger_the_Wing

I never said I stayed in Brisbane. I said Queensland. It’s a bloody big state, Queensland. You, sir, are a moron.

Peter Harris

Ha ha, oh really? So easy to post something, and then delete later.

So tell me, where exactly did you stay in Queensland?

Peter Harris

“You, sir, are a moron”

Says the poor white trash, who doesn’t know the difference between genetics and rice crispies.

Peter Harris

“The one who raised the point of basements in the first place?”

No, it was you who said first, that I spent time in the basement, but you have conveniently deleted your original post.

Mishimoo

Again, that’s not how it works here. I don’t have admin privileges and posts don’t get deleted, they stand or fall on their own merits. You get to embarrass yourself as much as you want, which works out great for you. As for your other comment – it’s hardly my fault that you can’t follow a conversation. Perhaps it’s the plant samples you’re taking?

Peter Harris

So where is your original post?

Mishimoo

Same place it was earlier? Your lack of information literacy and tech skills are not my responsibility.

Peter Harris

Nup.
Still nothing.

Mishimoo

All of MY posts are still here. It’s hardly my fault that you’re awfully mistaken, and still seem to think that I am the doctor you’re trying (and failing miserably) to harass.

Who?

In the whole of Australia there is not one home with a basement? Not a single one? Anywhere?

I can think of half a dozen, off the top of my head, in Brisbane.

Perhaps you move in the wrong circles.

Peter Harris

Now the dribblers and bedwetters are posting as “guest.”

You can think of half dozen can you, ok, can you name them?

Peter Harris

Your flunkies have been doing their best (but failed) to dissuade me from communicating to the rest of the disqus community, of the fact that you are a Quack.
Can’t you fight your own battles?
No balls Dr Sickie?

Who?

You’re a warrior.

In tinfoil.

Christopher Hickie

So nice you allowed use of your own picture for this article, Petard.

Peter Harris

Is that your best work? And the funny part? Look at your own avatar.

Who?

Peter is very argumentative for someone getting as much sex as he claims to be getting.

Which is a boost to the ‘tinfoil hat in parent’s home’ theory.

Tigger_the_Wing

As does being someone who cannot even work out how many people he’s communicating with, and instead believes that we are all the same person.

Peter Harris

That’s funny… coming from someone who has no understanding of Genetics.

Peter Harris

Sorry, but it’s an easy conclusion to make, when you all dribble out of the same side of your mouth.

Tigger_the_Wing

And he’s outdone himself, now not even realising when he’s addressing himself.

Peter Harris to Peter Harris • 2 days ago
So no rebuttal, regarding the fact that you are quack?

Heidi

He must’ve attended the ChiaPet Parker School of How to Disqus.

Peter Harris

Still waiting for you to tell me where in Queensland you have stayed.

Tigger_the_Wing

And what makes you think that you are entitled to that information?

Peter Harris

You clearly have the memory of a goldfish, because you were adamant, that basements exist in Queensland, because you stayed in one.

Tigger_the_Wing

I was telling the truth. The fact that you doubt me doesn’t entitle you to the address of the house where I stayed.

Peter Harris

You are so funny, what with your delusional nonsense and your lying.
I don’t want a specific address, just the region even.
Can you manage that?

Peter Harris

So no rebuttal, regarding the fact that you are quack?

Peter Harris

No doubt, you caught up with the debate, regarding Americans ignorance about the rest of the world, assuming other countries like Australia have basements in their homes.

Then again, your flunkies arguing about basements in Australia, is most likely is you.
So often I’ve discovered, you reprobates have multiple disqus accounts.

Two Australian websites talking about homes with basements. Your move, chuckles.

Who?

I know, I can think of several right in Brisbane, where PH asserts there are none.

He is a fool, and if his remarks about Java are true, I suspect much worse.

Nick Sanders

I don’t know that much about Java and it’s relationship to Australia. From the sound of remarks here, I’m gathering that it’s a popular sex tourism destination?

Who?

It can be. Australia is all over Indonesia, sometimes in the good way, sometimes not so much.

My suspicion is that Peter may be one of those folk who don’t know Java is a state of Indonesia. Particularly given his state of knowledge of Australian architecture, outside his own very narrow experience.

Mishimoo

Sex tourism, as well as bought (for lack of a better term) wives. It was rather common in one of the towns I used to live in: 50+ year old men, barely adult women. The men go over to Indonesia, spend $500+, come home with a brand new wife who does everything their filthy little heart desires. A big fuss is made over the men because it’s hoped they will continue to send money over, and they usually get to try out a few different ‘willing’ women while they’re there. It’s predatory and I loathe it.

Who?

Exactly so.

The kind of man who spends $500ish to buy a whole human being-who, if she went to school with his daughters, would not look at him twice and would probably find him embarrassing-is not a good advertisement for humankind.

Peter H may well also be on the MRA bandwagon, complaining about how Australian women don’t respect him. Damn right we don’t: he’s not a respectable individual.

StephanieJR

Well, guess who has an Indonesian sister-in-law? Hint: me. If he keeps this bullshit up, I can try to verify his alleged claims. I only wish I could get him deported…

Peter Harris

Oh, so you’ve been defeated by the fact that basements are not appropriate in Brisbane or Queensland, so you shift the argument to wine cellars and car parks? Who’s chuckling? Haha.

Nick Sanders

You said there were no basements in the whole of Australia, you dumb shit.

Who?

The whole ‘basement’ thing tidily reflects his thinking. He ‘knows’ what a basement is, and anything he says isn’t a basement, isn’t one. No discussion. An underground structure in Australia can’t be a basement. Because he says so.

Like vaccines are bad, we are sock puppets, etc, etc. His word is the end of the discussion.

I hope those young folk in Java are cashing in big-time in return for their efforts.

Peter Harris

Underground car parks and wine cellers do not count… dropkick.

Did you find any Queensland? Hahaha

Nick Sanders

Phil Dwyer, of Dwyer Construction and president of the Builders Collective of Australia, has built a number of homes with basements.
“There was a time when only the Brightons and Tooraks were doing basements, but now there are more of them in the suburbs,” Mr Dwyer said.
“It’s becoming more and more apparent we will be digging holes and putting part of the house under ground.”

Peter Harris

Hey Dr Sicky… sorry Nick… you are a dropkick.
Just because we use the American term “basement,” it has absolutely no practical context to what you Americans know as a basement, which is a place for habitation.
It’s used as an underground car park, or wine cellar as in your example, by the wealthy in Brighton and Toorak, is your article points out.
But no doubt, you being a total wanker, will come back and continue on with this meaningless discussion over basements.

Not sure how having my brain hemispheres talk to each other more would involve my immune system or help the situation, but whatever. If you think I care about this conversation for more than boredom relief and watching you embarrass yourself, you are giving yourself entirely too much credit.

Peter Harris

Oh, I’m not here for my credit, lol, or any self satisfaction. . .no, I’m only here to see another American make a total dick of himself.

Peter Harris

“Not sure how having my brain hemispheres talk to each other more would involve my immune system or help the situation, but whatever.”

You’re the one that made the non sequitur about the corpus callosum. You’re also the one so worked up over this that you are replying to people’s comments twice all up and down the page.

Peter Harris

Morning dick…still discussing non sequiturs are we.

Peter Harris

The hypocrisy, is on a par with the appalling “science” discussed on this website

Peter Harris

So I take it, you’ve got bored talking about basements.

Sarc-nado.

MaineJen

I suspect this mouth breather found the phrase “corpus callosum” during one of his inept google searches, thought it sounded cool, and is now tossing it at us thinking we’ll be impressed.

MI Dawn

Funny, that doesn’t look like most basements I’ve been in, living in the US in several states. Maybe I’m just not typical. Though I have seen some that looked like that.

Now, I’ve never been to Oz, but know that Tigger_the_Wing has lived there. And I also know many others who live there. Guess I’ll ask about basements vs car parks.

And no, Peter. I’m not Chris Hickie (though I’d love to live in AZ), not Mishimoo, or any of the other posters. I happen to live on the east coast of the US where (gasp) things flood and we STILL have basements. And things called sump pumps.

Peter Harris

“…Oz, but know that Tigger_the_Wing has lived there.”

“And no, Peter. I’m not Chris Hickie (though I’d love to live in AZ), not Mishimoo, or any of the other posters.”

Ha ha…

Oh, and I’m still waiting for TtW to tell me where in Queensland she stayed.

MaineJen

She’s not going to give you the addresses of her friends and family. So you can keep waiting.

Peter Harris

I don’t give a rats ass about her friends and family, all I want to know is which city or town she stayed in Queensland.

MaineJen

Hahahahahah f^&* off.

Peter Harris

Triggered not?

Who?

And nor am I, though he asked me to the other day.

Peter Harris

Oh, and BTW, what happened to that misanthrope Gorski?
Hazmat Team come and take him away?

MI Dawn

You probably notice that we tend to stop feeding trolls after a while. They get boring.

Heidi

Heh, that basement looks wonderful compared to ours. Ours is a collection of paint and spare building materials collected probably since the 40s and for some reason a chain with dozens of locks with no keys on it shoved into the crawlspace, a dehumidifier, and rat skeletons.

Empress of the Iguana People

Dude, I’ve never had a basement anyone would want to inhabit. Dad’s was the nicest. It wasn’t dank, just dark and a bit cinderblock-prison-cell-ish.

Peter Harris

Did you see Dick Sanders/Dr Sickie down there?

Who?

You’ll see Peter has proved the point I made earlier.

He’s wound pretty tight for a guy getting as much sex as he says he is. Though I imagine having one’s wallet emptied through one’s penis would not be that much fun.

“When refusing to vaccinate is widely viewed as selfish, irresponsible, and the hallmark of being UNeducated, anti-vax advocacy will lose its appeal.”

A sign of voting Republican is associated with “low information”, and yet they still keep getting elected. There are always going to be those who want to “stick it to edumacated librul commie elites” by latching onto and venerating dumbness.

Sheven

True, but there are fewer and fewer who associate sticking it to the educated liberals with things like racial segregation or persecution of gay people. Things are only liberal until they become normal.

shay simmons

The most recent one I read (on another Disqus forum) was that Brian Hooker lost his VICP case because Big Pharma forged entries in his child’s medical record.

Seriously.

MI Dawn

Those darn Big Pharma Ninjas will get you every time…

Cody

“We should embark on a similar “makeover” for anti vaccine advocacy. When refusing to vaccinate is widely viewed as selfish, irresponsible, and the hallmark of being UNeducated, anti-vax advocacy will lose its appeal.”

How do you accomplish this when many of the anti-vaxxers are affluent white women?

Sullivan ThePoop

Since most antivaxxers are white and at least middle class I am not sure why they would feel marginalized.

MI Dawn

The problem is that you can’t argue with someone who *wants* to believe they have special knowledge. No matter how you try, you fail. I have friends who sincerely believe a vaccine caused their baby to die of SIDS (nearly 2 weeks after the vaccine, by the way). So they refused to vaccinate any of their other children, and treat everything with essential oils, crystals, etc. (They offered to align my chakra which was apparently out of place or something. I declined, since I don’t believe in chakras…which is a symptom of the chakra being misaligned supposedly. I love endless loops.)

The other problem is the way they view information. Any information that contradicts their beliefs is proof that there’s a conspiracy.

namaste863

The problem with conspiracies, any conspiracy, is that they usually involve large numbers of people. And every single one of them has a mouth. For that reason alone, they almost can’t happen, because sooner or later someone is gonna blab.

The first school I worked at as a teacher had a principal who was misreporting the number of students attending to the state for funding. Essentially, the school was receiving funding for ~400 full-time high school students when enrollment was ~150 full-time students.

The principal managed to keep that up for about 18 months before it all fell apart when he asked a recent graduate of the school employed as a secretary to forge certain teachers’ signatures. She told her dad about the request who took her to a police station to report that.

That’s the problem. In spite of a pretty slick set-up – we had ~35 teachers who were working in 6 different programs/funding streams in 5 buildings from 7am-9pm that allowed any questions by staff like “My classes don’t seem to be large enough to support my salary” to be answered with “Well, the Job Corp/Adult ESL/Adult GED program runs a surplus” – the whole thing fell apart because a teenage secretary realized she was being asked to commit forgery/perjury.

It didn’t help that the staff was more than willing to work with the police to identify falsified attendance records. My lefty-CP letters are quite unique looking and someone was filling in “P” for kids who were absent that were well-formed, rounded and right-slanted.

I was ready and willing to testify because my students who I had carefully rebuilt trusting relationships with were now being fucked over since the school was going to be closed the next year.

If kids were dying……yeah. That would fall apart in less than 2 years.

Kerlyssa

they’ll accuse someone of being a shill when said person’s own mother died of x disease. like, millions of people are going to watch their family members die for some conspiracy?

Sarah

That’s because their family members didn’t really die, obv.

Young CC Prof

Real conspiracies have happened, but yeah, if you want to know whether a proposed conspiracy is at all plausible, think about how many people would have to be knowingly involved, and whether there’s enough money involved to possibly pay off all of them. Even if there is a ton of money, the more people who know, the less plausible it is that it could possibly be kept quiet for any length of time.

If we’re talking about a conspiracy of maybe 5 people, all of whom are getting very rich, I’d be willing to consider it. If it’d take thousands of people, no way.

Roadstergal

That’s one of the primary messages of Voodoo Histories – explaining in a clear way how so many conspiracy theories go completely against how we know people act, how we know the world works.

The rest of it is about trying to plumb the depths of why people believe in them anyway.

Empress of the Iguana People

It’s a common sense thing. There is no sensible reason why governments, doctors, and the pharmaceutical industry would want to kill or maim a large percentage of the population, especially the part that dominates their fields. But as the cliche goes, common sense isn’t that common.

Zornorph

Well, in the 1980’s, a significant number of people believe that Heavy Metal bands were encouraging their fans to commit suicide. As one of them said, it they were putting hidden commands recorded backwards in their songs it would have been ‘Please buy more of our records.’ My favorite was the one who sued Ozzy for singing ‘I tell you to end your life’ when it was simply a misheard lyric and Ozzy was really singing ‘I tell you to enjoy life’.

Empress of the Iguana People

oy. I have a vague memory of this, but I was a kid and I didn’t listen to heavy metal

FallsAngel

There were conspiracy theories about the lyrics of Beatles songs played backwards as well back in the 60s, e.g. “I buried Paul”, meaning Paul McCartney was dead.

Charybdis

Wasn’t a Judas Priest song the thing that kicked that whole thing off?

Roadstergal

I remember listening to an Infinite Monkey Cage episode where they played a bit of Another One Bites The Dust backwards. It was just gibberish. Then he gave us the ‘prime’ of “It’s fun to smoke marijuana,” and now I can’t hear anything else when it’s played backwards.

Someone actually understood Ozzy? I get little more than mumbling. Or screaming.

Mishimoo

The one I heard while growing up in the 90s was: “All secular songs (especially heavy metal) have hidden incantations in them in order to invoke demons, because signing a contract with Satan is the only way to get famous.”

Dr Kitty

My mother went through a religious phase after the death of my sister (I.e most of my early childhood).
For a while she spent a lot of time with people like that.
She has significantly mellowed since, thank goodness.
My dad has always been live and let live when it came to religion.

I think Harry Potter (which my mum read, and loved) was one of the final straws.

Also the fact that her children are all at various points on a spectrum of ” Non-observant Jewish->Agnostic-> Humanist” has helped too.

Amy Tuteur, MD

Dr. Amy Tuteur is an obstetrician gynecologist. She received her undergraduate degree from Harvard College in 1979 and her medical degree from Boston University School of Medicine in 1984. Dr. Tuteur is a former clinical instructor at Harvard Medical School. She left the practice of medicine to raise her four children. Her book, Push Back: Guilt in the Age of Natural Parenting (HarperCollins) was published in 2016. She can be reached at DrAmy5 at aol dot com...
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